Use Search Keywords to Kickstart Your Twitter Marketing Strategy

April 19, 2016

By: Teena Thach

If you’re a marketer, you live and breathe keywords. Everything you do, from creating blog content to targeting search ads needs to be mindful of these specific words that tie you and your customers together. The importance of keywords is no different for Twitter, but the tactics you need to use are.

Since Twitter announced changes to their feed algorithm earlier this year, the organic reach of your tweets could take a dramatic hit. This makes it vital to target your Twitter engagement very carefully to different audiences and to specific individuals. You can’t expect your audience to stumble upon your tweets in their feed. You need to discover the actual words customers are using when they communicate on social and search for information related to your specific industry and business.

Before we dive into the specific ways to research and analyze the keywords most valuable to your Twitter marketing, it’s important to understand how Twitter keywords differ from the ones you are already using for your SEO. Not all keywords are created equal. The main difference is how users interact with search engines and social networks.

When your audience types a search into Google, they are using query terms that they expect to find content for. When they post a tweet, they are just communicating. If anyone is tweeting out “B2B cybersecurity tools for enterprises,” you probably unfollowed them a long time ago. Instead, they use conversational language that may not contain the keywords you are used to targeting.

Here is how you can identify the keywords your audience is actually using on Twitter, which you can use to better target your engagement and your ads:

Initial Keyword Research

Whether you are starting a Twitter ads campaign or a more targeted lead generation campaign, you need to start with an initial list of keywords. We’ll talk about refining this list in a minute, but there are a few keyword research tactics you can use as a jumping off point.

Your goal isn’t to find specific search matches but to find specific leads based on keyword indicators. These indicators come in three forms:

Conversational keywords: The words your prospects are using in their actual tweets to indicate a potential need or interest in your product or service.

Bio keywords: The words your prospects are using in their bios to indicate they are part of your target market.

Location keywords: Target your social content and ads even further by adding location keywords.

The keywords you test out initially can come from your Google AdWords, your Content Management System, or your marketing automation and social media platforms. Build off of the keywords that have worked for you in other mediums to generate a list of more conversational keywords.

According to the Twitter blog, “While you should test keywords from your search campaigns on Twitter, you’ll probably also need to identify some keywords especially for use on Twitter.”

Through Twitter Ads, whether you run an ad or not, you can search for specific keywords and learn the global daily volume of Tweets containing each keyword. This will give you your starting point.

Perform Regular Keyword Analysis

No matter where you get your keyword information from, their performance on other sites won’t quite indicate how they perform on Twitter. Since you are applying some search insights to your social media strategy, analyzing your keyword strategy becomes even more important.

Now that you have performed your initial keyword research and put it into action in your campaigns you should be constantly monitoring and refining your keyword strategy.

Twitter’s keyword-level analytics offer some insights into which keywords are performing best but for a more advanced look you can use a social media lead generation platform like Socedo. It’s not enough to simply learn which keywords resulted in the most clicks. Knowing which keywords resulted in follows, engagement and actual conversions will help you better target your keyword strategy.

As you collect these insights, make a regular habit of removing underperforming keywords and adding new keywords that are related to your top performers.

Refining Your Targeting Strategy

As you refine and develop your keyword targeting, you should also begin thinking about new ways to leverage Twitter’s unique keyword opportunities.

Merchant service provider Ethix learned early on in their Twitter keyword campaign that their initial targeting strategy was limiting their success. Instead of targeting “investors”, who rarely identify themselves as such on their Twitter bio or in their messages, the company refined their strategy to focus on the nonprofit industry. Investors in this industry had very specific keywords to identify them and Ethix was able to better target their messaging to focus on this specific group. After making targeting and profile changes, traffic to the website and phone call volume increased by 15-20%.

By thinking beyond search keywords, you can find the audience segments that you can best identify and market to in your Twitter messages. It starts with careful research, but the most vital aspect is carefully monitoring and refining your Twitter keyword strategy. By approaching organic and paid Twitter activity as a tactic that needs constant adjustment you can see much greater success.

Meet Guest: Teena Thach

Teena is the social media and marketing specialist for Socedo, a social media lead generation platform.

We feature guest contributors who have something valuable to share with our readers about social media marketing. These are not compensated and we only feature unique content. We give guests the credit they deserve by showcasing them all over our social media and linking back to their stuff. Do you have something to share? Inquire about guest blogging today.

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